A penniless British pensioner slept rough in a Russian airport terminal for two weeks after being barred from leaving the country to fly to London.
Steve Beard, a former metal worker, had moved to a village in Siberia after falling in love a decade ago with schoolteacher turned businesswoman Ruslana Lesyuta, 52, on a dating site.
The couple have a son Robert, eight, and he had intended to fly briefly back to Britain to make arrangements for his pension payments to reach him in remote Irkutsk region where winter temperatures plummet to minus 50C or below.
A penniless British pensioner slept rough in a Russian airport terminal for two weeks after being barred from leaving the country to fly to London. Pictured: Steve Beard in the terminal
Mr Beard (pictured with his wife) flew to Moscow but was then barred from leaving Russia at Sheremetyevo airport because his Russian residency permit had expired
Mr Beard flew to Moscow but was then barred from leaving Russia at Sheremetyevo airport because his Russian residency permit had expired.
‘They stopped me and did not let me fly out of the country,’ he told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
‘I was fined. And the migration service urged me to return to Irkutsk.’
Instead, Beard – who worked for 30 years in a London metals plant – flew to Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg to try and leave Russia there.
But again he was forbidden to pass immigration and fly to his homeland.
In despair, Steve stayed in the terminal Pulkovo without money or a bank card, reported the newspaper.
Beard (pictured), who worked for 30 years in a London metals plant, flew to Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg to try and leave Russia there
Schoolteacher turned businesswoman Ruslana Lesyuta (pictured) met her husband on a dating site
Mr Beard (pictured with his wife and child) pleaded from help from the British consulate
It was only due to help from a Russian tourism official who felt his plight was like the character played by Tom Hanks in 2004 film The Terminal that he was rescued from his ordeal.
‘I slept in an chair in the waiting room,’ said the Briton. I washed my face and hair in the restrooms.
‘I ate the cheapest food at airport diners. I do not speak Russian, so I could not earn any money here.’
He pleaded from help from the British consulate and was lucky to find a sympathetic friend in the St Petersburg tourist information bureau.
Mr Beard found a friend in the St Petersburg tourist information bureau
Ilya Tarashkevich said: ‘Steve approached me and asked how a foreigner can receive a money transfer.
‘He did not have a card, and the bank did not work with foreigners. My colleagues and I were puzzled.
‘Soon I realised that the only way was to use my card.’
He took pity on the man labelled an ‘alien’ who ‘had not eaten for three days’.
‘I thought what should happen in a person’s life to make this happen.
‘Then Beard also said that he was afraid that he would be banned from entering the country again (unless his legal problem was resolved).
‘The most important thing in his life is his child,’ he said.
‘I am a father myself, so I understand him. Then I decided to help Steve.’
The consulate needed scans of all his documents.
‘There are no copy centres at the airport so I ran around the offices of cellular operators and asked: ‘Do you remember the movie Terminal? I have a person here with the same story. Help me to scan the documents!’
This led to a court appearance where he was fined 5,000 roubles – around £58 – but the judge understood his plight and overruled a demand to have him expelled from Russia after he had paid his fine.
Expulsion – which could bar him returning in the near future – would violate the human right to a family life, the court ruled.
Specifically the judge decided that his son’s rights to be with his father were more important than expelling him for failing to renew his residence permit on time.
Beard is now preparing new documents allowing him to re-enter Russia after he returns from his trip to Britain.
His wife – who had four children before meeting the British man – said they had fallen in love after three years chatting on the internet.
Ruslana, who has a business supplying window units, said their first meeting was in Ukraine. Pictured: The couple together
Ruslana, who has a business supplying window units, said their first meeting was in Ukraine and when she discovered she was pregnant by him ‘our joy was beyond limit’.
The couple have been wed for eight years. But he has failed to adapt to some aspects of Russian life.
He could not cope with her family farm in the remote village of Malaya Ivanovka village 3,250 miles east of Moscow.
‘We have our own farm with cows,’ she said. ‘But Steve had a severe allergy, he could not bear even the smell of mown grass.
‘So it was not possible to accustom him to village life.
‘And he did not like Russian borsch (beetroot soup), and so he ate only his food – specially cooked potatoes, and beef of the highest quality. He could not find a job in Russia.’
He could not cope with her family farm in the remote village of Malaya Ivanovka village 3,250 miles east of Moscow